784: Clicks Jan 30, 2017

It can be odd to wrap one's head around the idea of consonantal clicks for those whom never grew up with certain (mostly) African languages. Clicks are consonants, and as such are still measured by how different parts of the body including the tongue, glottis, and lips prevent the flow of air. Most clicks, and all those found in African languages are ingressive, meaning that they move the air inwards. There are multiple types of clicks, and in some languages like Xhosa, these can be the most prevalent consonants. In Damin, spoken in Australia, there is one egressive click, which means that the only language outside of Africa to have clicks also has the only one produced by exhaling. Outside of these click tongues which incorporate these sounds into their standard words, anyone can produce these sounds, such as in the English, 'tsk-tsk'.